Bhaktha Prahallathan

Bhaktha Prahallathan

“Aandava…Please make it happen this time”, prayed Prahallathan standing outside Rajeshwari temple near his Vadapalani office. His elder sister is reaching her mid 30s and the ‘society’ was doing its share to make sure that he was reminded of this fact every other day. Devi was not getting any younger, and Prahallathan Varathachari Ramanujan, or PVR as he was fondly called, was losing patience as this is not clearing his way in getting married to his long time girl friend Kamala.

For him it absolutely had to happen this year. This was almost a make or break for him. He got another chance after the unsuccessful attempt a few years before.

PVR did everything that was possible in his reach to make it happen and in fact came very close in finalizing things three years before. As the other party was living near Kasi, and wanted to meet him in a public place, he took the trip to Kasi three years before with enormous hopes. To his bad luck, Kasi was flooded with devotees right from 4 AM and they diverted all the traffic leading to that place. All he got to see was the Abishekam of the Urchavar, as he stood outside and did his Prarthana. Moolavar was far from his reach! That alliance did not materialize.

He is not going to let others keep speaking about his ‘situation’ this time. He went to multiple astrologers to find out why things are not working out after all his efforts.

‘Kaazhiyoor Narayanan’ guaranteed that he will succeed in his attempts this weekend, if he performed the ‘raaghu kaala pooja’ for Surian and Chandiran.

‘Lucky Stone Lingeshwaran’ suggested that wearing Emerald on his right index finger would bring him good charm.

‘Vaasthu Varadharajan’ had his own doubts. Since this was no laughing matter that Prahallathan was dealing with, he compulsorily told that there should be a laughing Buddha kept at the entrance of his house for his efforts to succeed.

‘Praahellaetheen’ did everything he could. Yup, he did not miss to visit ‘Numerology 7Malai’ as well. ‘Subamuhurtham Soundarapaandi’ marked 4:00 AM to 4:30 AM as the best time to go out for this particular search.

Finally, the day Prahallathan was waiting for had arrived. He was up at 3 AM, took the customary oil bath, got blessings from his parents, said not to worry to his sister and got out of the house at 4:00 AM sharp. By the time he reached the venue, there were already 100 people ahead of him. He dodged the line and got into the top 10. He finally made it!!

Prahallathan couldn’t believe it actually happened this time. It was all like a Mayajaal to him. He finally got his tickets for the first day first show for his Thalaivar’s Enthiran – The Robot!

Three years before, his attempt at getting the tickets for Sivaji – The Boss was unsuccessful and he made up for that! Now he can watch both the Paalabishekam for the Urchavar cutout and also see the Aarthi for the Moolavar, when his thalaivar appears on the screen! He cannot wait for his ‘Robo’Valli in just a week!!

For Bhaktha Prahallathan, his Thalaivar was God and the theaters in Chennai [ (AVM)Rajeshwari, Devi, Kamala, Kasi, Prarthana, Suriyan, Chandiran and Mayajaal ] were the temples that screen them!

Inspired by Appa’s vaitherichal Idea :) His work is available HERE and HERE.

Funny Tamil One Liners

Funny Tamil One Liners (தமிழ் காமெடி பஞ்ச்)

Here is a collection of ma favorite comedy one liners from Tamil Cinema. Apparently Goundamani and Vadivelu fill up most of my memory.

Feel if I have missed some? Comment it out!

Goundamani

1. arasiyal vazhkaila ithellam sagajamappa!

2. Narayana...intha kosu thollai thanga mudillada

3. start meesik!

4. Onnu intha irruku...Unnunu enga?

5. Pera paaru....Sangoothara vayasala Sangeeetha

6. Athu enda enna paathu antha kelvi ketta?

7. Vadi partasarathy...

8. Enga villan varapo kai thatreenga? -- ithu tha padathula oru turrning pointu

9. Dai appa...unnala ore oru nanmada...vazhka poora nan current bill katnathillada

10. Naangalavathu ungakita sollitu than vanthom...neeennga

11. Dai thaadi..25 varusham kazhichu un vazkaila kabi..kabi nadanthurukunu roma thullatha?

12. petromas light-ey thaan venuma? intha theepanddam ellam koluthikka koodatha?

13. Intha world lileye car vechurukara karagata troop nammuluthu than

14. Hey inga poosu...inga poosu...Ganda kannalagi

15. Hey take the tontiphy

16. Dai kidna naaye..avlolam kuduka mudiyathu

17. Nee sonna vaakiyatha thanjavore kalvetula eludhi vachitu neeyum pakkathula utkanthuko.....unnaku pinadi vara santhathikal atha paathu thelivaa naadhukuvanga...

18. shhh...Mother poranga -- Yaaru namma ammangla -- No, Mother Superior -- Ooo Supaari paaku poduvangala?

19. Dai kidna naaye..avlolam kuduka mudiyathu

20. pen paathukarathu thaarathoda thagapanar....Pen Paathu udrathu thaarathoda thaayar

21. Aalaaparu....Manasula Michael Jackson thangachi nu nenapu

22. Cinema nadigai soppanasundariya yaaru vechuruka nu kekaran

23. Suriyana suttathu yaaru? Hee He..Suriyana yaarum suda mudiyathu sir..Suriya veppam than nammala sudum.

Vadivelu

1. Vanthutaanya....Vanthutaaya

2. Room pottu yosipaangalo?

3. Enna vechu comedy keemedy pannalaiye?

4. Ennaku risk edukarathellam rask saapudramathiri

5. Thaniya poi keeta athu thagararu---Thanniya pottu poi ketta athu varalaru

6. Enna poramaiya.....Liggghtttta

7. Yov..naanum rowdi thaanya...Ennayum jeepla yethu

Vivek

1. Figure a paatha udne Friend a cut pannitiyeda

2. Neenga verum daasa...illa laad labaku dasa?

3. Epdi irruntha nan ipdi aaiten

4. Padhil sonna prize oru kodi...Enga aalunga adicha nee dead body

Other

1. Rendaayiram....Naalayiram.....Ettayiram....Mama Biskothu! (Pandiyarajan)

2. Engiyoo poitenga sir (Janagaraj)

3. Thraaambi...(Veniradai Moorthi)

4. Anee....thula epdine light eriyum?(Senthil)

ENTHIRAN - Latest Images

ENTHIRAN - Latest Images

Here are some pretty cool images from the shooting spot.

I am going to add 'Enthiran' to the list of movies filmed in Machu Picchu Wiki.

Rajni, Aish and the villan Danny.

International Robotic Conference in India - Why do I see two Rajnis in this pic?

Again, I am confused about the two images on the mirror !?

Dasavatharam, Sivaji and the Reality Check

Dasavatharam, Sivaji and the Reality Check

Exactly after a year later Sivaji - The Boss, we now have Dasavatharam. Kamal and his producer Aaskar Ravi (Oh yeah..He is not Oscar anymore!) made sure that they did everything possible to promote the movie and tried really hard to hit the headlines atleast for the past one month, before the release. They even went to the extent of inviting Jackie Chan and Amitab Bachan (I have no idea why they did) for the Audio release function in Nehru Stadium. The controversies also added more interest among the movie buffs. Kamal also screened the movie to Karunanithi (Who has been involved in almost all the audio release and movie premiers recently - and yea, he does have a job of being the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) who supposedly was really impressed and congratulated his effort (I don't understand this - you screen a movie exclusively for a celebrity and what else will you expect out of them at the end of the show? It is like my friend and his wife inviting me for dinner and me saying the food was awesome, even though it sucked big time ;) )

Ok, enough said about how much was done to promote Dasavatharam. The question now is, have all the marketing thingy paid off for Dasavatharam? Has it created enough interest among people? Google Trends can help you with that. Trends has been here for about a year and half now. For those who want to learn how this works - go here to learn.

Basically, Google trends will plot the popularity of a subject based on Search Volume Index. In other words, you can easily say how many people were searching for a subject or how many times that subject was listed in google news for the past 4 years.

Let's compare how Dasavatharam and Sivaji faired among the internet users. The results displayed are world-wide statistics.

dasavatharam

1.00

sivaji

7.00

Clearly, on the day of its release in June 2007, Sivaji (The Red Graph) hits a peak among internet users. Also, the small graph below shows the number of news reference for that particular week. You may claim that lot of hits may have come from Sivaji - the name, rather than Sivaji - the movie. Wrong. The search increased just on the movie release date and it took almost a month the settle down. Also, as some of you might have heard already, Google also lists Top 100 searches every day. Now, these results are only from the US and not global. On June 14 2007 (the release date for sivaji), the search phrase 'sivaji review' comes in at number 69. It is just the people in the US searching for it. Even though it was a slow news day, it had to stand up against the US open, the tooth paste recall, the flag day etc., during that day, last year. I have not seen any other Indian movie doing that before. The cool thing about hot trends is that, it lets you go back up to 2 years and search for the top 100 hot trends for every day in those past years. Trends also lists the related news articles alongside the results. All the A, B, C s that you see on the red graph above corresponds to Sivaji - the movie news article that touched periodic peaks. A complete set of country wide, state wide, city wide results can be found here. Bottom line, Dasavatharam clearly did not create enough interest before or on its day of release. I am almost positive that a movie's verdict will be directly proportional to these results.

Another movie that came to my mind when I thought of crazy marketing is Om Shanti Om. SRK is undoubtedly the marketing guru, when it comes to his movies. He was literally on all the TV channels all the time before the movie hit the screens.

Lets take a look at how it compared with Sivaji.

sivaji

1.00

om shanti om

1.20

As it came out during November 2007, the curiosity among internet users gradually increased and peaked during its release date.

The one thing that we should notice in the above graphs is their pattern. It is really interesting to see how the two graphs have a pre-release short peak and touches the high point on the day of its release. Later, the hype (or the graph) gradually settles down in a month.

Going with these statistics, Dasavatharam will fail to make the cash registers ringing. Kamal might have to go back to the drawing board and work on getting this graph right for his next.

Super Star Sam Anderson

Super Star Sam Anderson

People - The Wait is over!! We have got a genuine all-rounder for Indian Film Industry. 'Thala' Sam Anderson is here!!
"God bless Mr.Sam Anderson. This vdo really changed my mood...the complex dance movements and the romantic smile n looks, cant forget this for decades......FIVE STARS" -- E! Online

"This is possibly India's Biggest Movie Ever Made---Has OSCARS written all over it!!" -- Chicago Sun Times

"The Dawn of a new era!!! From now there will be no Salman Khan, SRK or even AMIR Khan but our great SAM ANDERSON. This is just the beginning....watch out for more.." -- Hindustan Times


"Gumthalakadi Gummava Sam Anderson na summava???" -- Ananda Vikatan

INDIA's ANSWER TO ELVIS!!

INDIA's ANSWER TO ELVIS!!
Me now being in Memphis, the hometown of Elvis, I was thinking why did India not have a counterpart...somebody who has that energy...that charm.....the class....the hair.....the moves....and yeah, who makes the chicks go craazzzzy!!!!

Well....WOLA!!!! my search ends right here.....ROCK N ROLL....man

Nene Elvisudu...Nene NTR udu (read like..Nane Ramudu...Nane Krishnudu!!)

A R Rahman Back to Basics

A R Rahman Back to Basics

Did you have a chance to listen to 'GURU' soundtrack? If not you should give it a shot.

No complicated music and no loud sounds either. Its all good old melody, and its really great to hear Rahman keeping things simple, literally, in terms of the instruments he uses. He prob did that cause it is a period flick, but it definitely works...Big time.

He kinda started going back to basics with his "Munbe Vaa" from Sill(une)endru oru kaathal.

Barso Re, a very fine start of the soundtrack (remembers you of Revathi singing 'oh oh megam vanthatho' from Mouna Raagam).....I can already imagine 'thalaivi' Aish singing in the rain, prob imitating Revathi, given that its Mani whos behind the scenes on both of them.

The one that stands out is the 'Ay Hairathe' by Hariharan and Alka. Its like one of those 80's number from Illaiyaraja, where a song is majorly dominated by a soft tabla in the background. Everything really comes together in this melody. This starts with a intoxicating humming by Rahman himself. love it.

'Ek lo Ek muft' is also a worth a mention. Especially the 'Joiya Joiya' and the 'Emo Emo Emo le' humming. Totally gets you the very first time you hear, and has its rural touch. Most of all, it has drunk bappi lahri and Chitra(she really rocks in this song)

I never thought I would write a music review, but this one kinda dragged me in. Hearing it at least twice a day.

Rahman, where were you dude? missed ya.... and Welcome Back!!!!!

Veecharuva in a Vending Machine!

Veecharuva in a Vending Machine!

part two... comes out December 2007.... "monkeys on a plane" dont miss it... i wonder what the third part is going to be called Snails on a BusZombies on a PlaneZombies on a TrainZombies on a BusPretty much zombies on anything...

Nah, the cool thing about it being on a plane is that once you're in the air, it's a lot harder to get off. You can easily stop a train or a bus, but you can't stop a plane in mid-air. Pretty much the only other confined spaces you can't get out of once they're in action are boats and submarines.
Bears on a Submarine!
beavers on a hovercraft.S
nakes on a boat and ladies in the water"Snakes In The Rain", which is a romantic comedy, featuring an all snake cast.
monkeys on a plane
Drunks on a yacht
gays on a gondola
Pigs on a Yacht!P
enguins on a Spaceshuttle
killer dildos on a train
Hornets on a School
BusCats on an Ice Cream Truck.
Ironside on a wheelchair
Ants in my pants

Grandmas in the hot tub, Carrot top in a blimp, and watching Little Man with The Wayans brothers on a plane (in like a week when they start showing it on flights). ahhhhhh!
toothpaste, bottled water, make up, shampoo, and contact solution on a plane.

Goats on a Boat! It rhymes!Gophers on a Golf Cart
Mel Gibson on a Jihad
SHARKS ON A PLANE
monkeys on a plane - They did that movie already. It's called "Air Force One.
Broke Back Mountain dudes in your roomSnakes in a Gay Bar.
Gorillas in a pop corn machine

Special thanks: The dude who writes crazy reviews for these crazy films.